Estimates of the numbers of dead over the last eight months – as Nato leaders vetoed ceasefires and negotiations – range from 10,000 up to 50,000. The National Transitional Council puts the losses at 30,000 dead and 50,000 wounded. Of those, uncounted thousands will be civilians, including those killed by Nato bombing and Nato-backed forces on the ground. These figures dwarf the death tolls in this year's other most bloody Arab uprisings, in Syria and Yemen. Nato has not protected civilians in Libya – it has multiplied the number of their deaths, while losing not a single soldier of its own.

The only ingredients lacking are battlefield skirmishes and a discrete insurgent guerilla force, though there are now flickers indicating that such a force is gradually being formed, especially through deserters from the military. Still, I wouldn't say that the conflict has quite risen to the level of civil war, since most deaths have occurred in the course of the repression of demonstrations by non-combatant civilians.

A campaign has already begun for his release, it says. Activists put out this statement:

We demand the immediate disclosure of the fate of our friend and fellow blogger Hussein Ghrer and the release of all prisoners of conscience, since their detention is against the law and universal human rights. We also demand the end of persecution against freedom of speech, because blind force, no matter how strong it is, will stay blind, and will stumble until it falls for good.

9.33am: France's defence minister Gerard Longuet says he doesn't see a need to extend Nato's mission in Libya, despite a request by the new Libyan government.

In an interview on France-Info radio Gerard Longuet said: "I don't exactly understand the need" to keep the operation going. He said the mission is continuing surveillance but is already "being dismantled rather quickly."

Last week announced preliminary plans to wind down the bombing campaign on October 31. It is due to meet on Friday to discuss ending the mission.

10.45am: Saif al-Islam wants an aircraft to take him out of Libya's southern desert so he can turn himself in to The Hague war crimes court, a source with Libya's National Transitional Council has told Reuters:

The NTC source said Islam had not left Libya and was being sheltered by a prominent figure among the nomadic Tuareg people of the desert, whom he had supported financially in the past. The rugged and empty area close to the borders of Niger and Algeria has offered an escape route to others in his family. However, under ICC indictment, Islam would find it harder than his relatives to secure a safe haven abroad.

He was reported by an aide to be fearing for his life when he fled Bani Walid, and if he has seen the gruesome video footage of his father's capture, he is likely to be under few illusions about how he might be treated if he remains in Libya.

"Saif is concerned about his safety," the NTC source said. "He believes handing himself over is the best option for him."

The source said Saif Islam wanted the involvement of a third country - possibly Algeria or Tunisia - in a deal to get him to The Hague. "He wants to be sent an aircraft," the source said by telephone from Libya. "He wants assurances."

Islam's whereabouts and intentions had been tracked by monitoring satellite phone calls, the source said, together with information contained in intelligence cables.

11.05am: The international criminal court says it still has no information on the Libyan NTC claim that Saif al-Islam and Abdullah al-Senussi are proposing to hand themselves in to the court.A spokeman told the Guardian:

There are terms of communication [with the NTC] through which we are trying to confirm the information.

Abdulhamid says soldiers affiliated with the Free Syria Army actually killed 11 Assad loyalists in Hama province yesterday, two more than the the British-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said were killed.

11.48am: State-run Syrian TV is broadcasting footage of another massive pro-regime gathering in support of President Bashar al-Assad, following yesterday's large pro-Assad demonstration in the capital.

Both the Assad regime and the opposition have been trying to illustrate the strength of their respective support as an Arab League delegation visits Syria to try to promote dialogue between the sides to end the bloodshed.

12.10pm: At least four people have been killled in Syria today, including a 14-year-old boy, activists say.

Activist group, the Local Co-ordination Committees, named the 14-year-old, killed in the southern village of Dael, in Dara'a as Amjad Hamed Assimy. A very distressing video has been posted online (WARNING: graphic), purporting to be of Amjad. It shows blood pouring from his head as another boy calls his name in the background.

12.21pm: As reports of the uprising becoming more violent continue, the Syrian opposition is naming tomorrow's protest "the Friday of the no-fly zone" (see left). They are calling for the same protection that was offered to Gaddafi's opponents in Libya. Friday has become the traditional day of protest during the Arab spring, with each Friday in Syria given a different title.

"The court ruled to free him from prison," Mabrouk Korchid said. Confirming the report, a judicial source said al-Mahmoudi was now a free man.

Mahmoudi fled Libya to neighbouring Tunisia soon after the rule of Muammar Gaddafi collapsed in August and had gone on hunger strike in protest against his possible extradition.

In an interview this month with Reuters conducted via his lawyer, Mahmoudi said he was not involved in repression during Gaddafi's 42-year rule and wanted to cooperate with Libya's new interim government.

Mahmoudi, Libyan prime minister from 2006, was the highest-ranking member of Gaddafi's administration now in detention. During the civil war this year, he gave televised briefings defending Gaddafi and accusing Nato of deliberately killing civilians.

Korchid had argued in court that Mahmoudi's life could be in danger if Tunisia returned him to Libya.

1.08pm: Five Arab Spring activists have won the European Parliament's Sakharov prize awarded to campaigners for freedom, AFP reports, citing a parliamentary source.

•Five Arab spring activists have been awarded the the European Parliament's Sakharov prize awarded to campaigners for freedom, according to AFP. They include Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisisan fruit seller whose death after he set himself on fire on December 17 last year is credited with inspiring the Arab spring, who was awarded the prize posthumously. The others were Egyptian Apri 6 youth movement co-founder 0Asmaa Mahfouz, Libyan dissident Ahmed al-Zubair Ahmed al-Sanusi, and two Syrians involved in the current uprising, Razan Zeitouneh and Ali Farzat.

Libya

•Muammar Gaddafi's most prominent son, Saif-al Islam, has asked for a plane to take him out of Libya's southern desert so he can turn himself in to the international criminal court, a source within Libya's National Transitional Council has told Reuters. The NTC reported yesterday that Islam and the former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi propose handing themselves in to the court. An ICC spokesman said the court was still trying to confirm whether this is true.

•The former Libyan prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, has been freed by a Tunisian court despite an extradition request from the Libyan authorities. His lawyer argued in court that Mahmoudi's life could be in danger if Tunisia returned him to Libya. He fled Libya to neighbouring Tunisia soon after the rule of Gaddafi collapsed in August and had gone on hunger strike in protest against his possible extradition.

•France's defence minister Gerard Longuet says he doesn't see a need to extend Nato's mission in Libya, despite a request by the new Libyan government. Libya's interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said Nato should remain involved in Libya until the end of the year to help prevent Gaddafi loyalists from leaving the country.

Syria

•A 14-year-old boy has been killed in Daeel, in Dara'a, activists say, as observers and activists warn that the revolution is becoming more violent. Four civilians have been killed today, according to activists. Opposition figures are calling tomorrow's - now traditional - protests after Friday prayers, the Friday of the no-fly zone, calling on Syrians to be granted the same protection from the Assad regime that the Libyan activists were given from Gaddafi.

•A massive rally in support of Bashar al-Assad has been taking place in the coastal city of Lattakia. It follows a large pro-regime demonstration in Damascus yesterday.

3.04pm: Saif al-Islam is under the protection of South African mercenaries, according to an AFP report, which cites the South African newspaper, the Beeld:

The South Africans were hired by a company with close ties to Gaddafi, training his presidential guard and handling some of his offshore financial dealings, the Afrikaans-language paper said.

South Africans have also reportedly been involved in transporting Gadhafi's gold, diamonds and foreign currency to Niger, and helping his wife and three of children flee Tripoli, the paper said.

Planes are waiting at a Johannesburg airport and in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates to fly the South Africans out of Libya, the Beeld said ...

They are all seasoned operators abroad and apparently become involved only by invitation in operations for which they receive large sums in US dollars," it said.

The report says that the group of South Africans includes fomer soldiers and policemen, some of whom were inovolved in the failed coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea in 2004. It adds that some were killed in the attack on Gaddafi's convoy a week ago.

3.10pm: An adviser to the president of Niger says that Gaddafi's intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Senoussi, has reached the Kidal region of Mali overnight after crossing through the Niger desert, and that Saif al-Islam is is also on his way, AP reports.

The adviser, speaking anonymously, said that Senoussi had been escorted across the dunes by Malian Tuaregs and is in a desert camp in the region of Kidal in northern Mali. Gaddafi's son is expected to follow the same route.

The pair are wanted by the international criminal court and the interim government in Libya claimed on Wednesday that Islam and Senoussi were proposing that they hand themselves in to the court.

With regards to Gaddafi, we do not wait for anybody to tell us. We had already launched an investigation. We have issued a code of ethics in handling of prisoners of war. I am sure that was an individual act and not an act of revolutionaries or the national army. Whoever is responsible for that (Gaddafi's killing) will be judged and given a fair trial.

3.23pm: The UN security council has voted to terminate the mandate allowing Nato to carry out military operations in Libya. This means operations will conclude at the end of the month.

Libya's interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil had said Nato should remain involved in Libya until the end of the year to help prevent Gaddafi loyalists from leaving the country.

3.37pm: The 15-nation UN security council unanimously approved the resolution terminating the UN mandate, which set the no-fly zone over Libya and permitted foreign military forces, including Nato, to use "all necessary measures" to protect Libyan civilians.

The resolution said the UN authorisation for foreign military operations in Libya will lapse at 11.59 pm local Libyan time on 31 October.

4.01pm: The Local Co-ordination Committees, which report on protests in Syria, say seven people have been killed in Syria today. Four of those were in Homs, where it said 10 people were killed yesterday, two in Dara'a, including a 14-year-old in Daeel (see 12.10pm), and one in Jableh, a coastal city on the Mediterranean.

Reports from Syria cannot be independently verified.

Photograph: Ancho Gosh/AP

4.14pm: Twenty-five Egyptians are crossing from Israel into Egypt in exchange for a US-Israeli citizen jailed in Cairo on suspicion of espionage, AP reports:

Egypt arrested Ilan Grapel (pictured), 27, in June, setting off new concerns that Egypt-Israel relations would sour after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

Under the swap deal, Grapel is to fly from Cairo to Israel later Thursday.

Grapel was volunteering at a legal aid group in Cairo when he was arrested and accused of spying for Israel during the uprising that overthrew Mubarak in February. Israel denied the espionage allegations, as did Grapel's family and friends.

4.48pm: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has told the Guardian that at least 200 corpses have been discovered in Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte.

In response, the ICRC said on Wednesday that it could not confirm the report. Today, spokesman Steven Anderson said that "at least 200 corpses" had been found but that the ICRC did not have information on how they had died or which side they were fighting on. He did say, howevever, that they appeared to have been killed recently.

He said the ICRC was not the organisation in charge of recording the dead but it was assisting other people who were doing so, including the National Council for the Missing.

It lists six myths and then the reality in each case. The rejections of the myths are quite detailed but here are the short versions:

1. Myth: President Assad has granted a general amnesty to political opposition movements, including the Muslim Brotherhood.

Reality: Many political prisoners were excluded from the amnesties, and many more innocent civilians have been detained since for political reasons.

2. Myth: Lifting the emergency law was the start of a Syrian reform process.

Reality: despite the promise of the Syrian government, it has done nothing to allow normal political life to resume.

3. Myth: The Syrian government is facilitating a "National Dialogue" to hear ordinary Syrians' concerns

Reality: The regime selects which "ordinary" Syrians it would like to hear from and ignores any point of view that is inconvenient.

4. Myth: The protests in Syria are the result of armed groups inciting trouble and deaths a result of terrorist attacks on the security forces and the army.

Reality: The UN report that government forces have killed over 3,000 protestors, including nearly 200 children.

5. Myth: President Assad is committed to delivering reform and just needs some time to regain security control.

Reality: Assad has had seven months to deliver reform but has not done so.

6. Myth: Syria's economic problems are a result of sanctions

Reality: For ordinary citizens the economic pain they are currently feeling is a direct consequence of the regime's actions – a result of the current violence and decades of economic mismanagement. International sanctions are targeted against the regime and its supporters and they have made regime actions more expensive. Any decision to pass these on to the Syrian people is one made consciously by the Assad regime.

He said the troops began planting the mines at dawn in an area facing two Lebanese villages - Knaysseh and Al-Hnayder.

"A number of Syrian soldiers were also seen deploying on their side of the border, near the Syrian villages of Heet and Buwayt," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The area is separated only by mounds of earth and for long has been used to smuggle goods between the two countries.

5.42pm: The online campaign group Avaaz says seven people have been injured in the city of Taiz in southern Yemen today:

Government security forces continue to attack residential areas in Taiz, according to residents.

The attacks continued for more than four hours Thursday morning and medics said that at least seven were injured by the raids.

Tens of thousands of pro democracy youth crowded the southern city of Taiz as protesters continue to demand Saleh's departure.

Avaaz says hundreds of thousands of people marched in Sana'a (the video below shows footage of a march in the capital) today to demand an end to violence in San'a and Taiz.

It also says more than 50,000 pro-democracy youth participated in a protest in Ibb calling for an end to the Saleh regime.

5.55pm: Here's a summary of today's events:

•Five Arab spring activists have been awarded the the European Parliament's Sakharov prize awarded to campaigners for freedom. They include Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisisan fruit seller whose death after he set himself on fire on December 17 last year is credited with inspiring the Arab spring, who was awarded the prize posthumously. The others were Egyptian Apri 6 youth movement co-founder 0Asmaa Mahfouz, Libyan dissident Ahmed al-Zubair Ahmed al-Sanusi, and two Syrians involved in the current uprising, Razan Zeitouneh and Ali Farzat.

Libya

•The UN security council has voted unanimously to terminate the mandate allowing Nato to carry out military operations in Libya. The UN authorisation will lapse at 11.59pm local Libyan time on 31 October. Libya's interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil had said Nato should remain involved in Libya until the end of the year to help prevent Gaddafi loyalists from leaving the country.

•An adviser to the president of Niger says that Gaddafi's intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, has reached the Kidal region of Mali overnight after crossing through the Niger desert, and that Saif al-Islam is is also on his way. The adviser told AP that Senoussi had been escorted across the dunes by Malian Tuaregs and is in a desert camp in the region of Kidal in northern Mali. Gaddafi's son is expected to follow the same route. But an NTC source told Reuters that Islam had asked for a plane to take him out of Libya's southern desert so he can turn himself in to the international criminal court.

•The former Libyan prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, has been freed by a Tunisian court despite an extradition request from the Libyan authorities. His lawyer argued in court that Mahmoudi's life could be in danger if Tunisia returned him to Libya. He fled Libya to neighbouring Tunisia soon after the rule of Gaddafi collapsed in August and had gone on hunger strike in protest against his possible extradition.

•France's defence minister Gerard Longuet says he doesn't see a need to extend Nato's mission in Libya, despite a request by the new Libyan government. Libya's interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said Nato should remain involved in Libya until the end of the year to help prevent Gaddafi loyalists from leaving the country.

Syria

•A 14-year-old boy has been killed in Daeel, in Dara'a, activists say, as observers and activists warn that the revolution is becoming more violent. Seven civilians have been killed today, according to activists, including four in Homs, where 10 people reportedly died yesterday. Opposition figures are calling tomorrow's - now traditional - protests after Friday prayers, the Friday of the no-fly zone, calling on Syrians to be granted the same protection from the Assad regime that the Libyan activists were given from Gaddafi. A Lebanese official told AFP that Syrian troops were seen planting mines in a region bordering northern Lebanon in an apparent bid to stop weapons smuggling along the porous border.

•A massive rally in support of Bashar al-Assad has been taking place in the coastal city of Lattakia. It follows a large pro-regime demonstration in Damascus yesterday.

Yemen

•There have been large demonstrations in Sana'a, Taiz, Ibb and Aden calling for an end to the Saleh regime and violence against his opponents. Seven people were injured in raids by government security forces in Taiz, residents told the online campaign group Avaaz.

The former Libyan leader amassed an enormous collection of military hardware during his decades in power. Much of it is now sitting virtually unguarded. Is it now destined to end up on the black market?

The former Libyan leader amassed an enormous collection of military hardware during his decades in power. Much of it is now sitting virtually unguarded. Is it now destined to end up on the black market?